Giants vs Cowboys review

Despite the New York Giants playing poorly on offense the defense stepped up and helped the Giants pull out a 29-24 victory and stay undefeated at the Dallas Cowboy Stadium. The Giants are 4-0 in Cowboy stadium and have now pulled away to stand on top alone of the NFC East.

The Giants defense is getting back to that championship caliber play that helped them win the Superbowl. The defense grabbed three interceptions in the first half and took a commanding 23-0 lead until the Cowboys scored a touchdown with 5:22 remaining in the first half.

Stevie Brown grabbed two interceptions. One of those came in the fourth quarter that should have sealed the deal for the Giants victory but the offense gave the ball right back to the Cowboys setting up what would be a fight to the last second of the game. Jason Pierre-Paul had a sack and an interception for a touchdown that put the Giants up 23-0. Corey Webster also had an interception.

Chris Canty being back in the defense made all the difference the past two games. Canty is a huge presence in the center and that makes it harder to double team the outside. Canty was able to get to Tony Romo and disrupt his offensive play. Canty had two tackles, one sack and disrupted a number of pass attempts. Linval Joesph also had two sacks.

The Giants defense also had two fumble recoveries. One fumble came on a Felix Jones run when the Cowboys were driving down the field trying to increase their lead after they took a 24-23 lead. The other fumble recovery came on a punt return by Dez Bryant.

 The defense did allow Romo to have big plays in the air and gave up 437 yards. The defense also allowed the Cowboys to come back and take the lead in the third quarter.

The Giants have been stopping the run games of their opponents and only allowed the Cowboys to have 19 yards rushing.

The Giants collapsed in the second half and were only able to score two field goals in the fourth quarter. Fortunately that was all they needed to get the victory and become 6-2.

Eli Manning did not have a good game completing only 15 of his 29 pass attempts for 192 yards and one interception. Only one wide receiver had over 50 receiving yards and that was rookie Rueben Randle. Randle had two catches for 68 yards. Hakeem Nicks had the second most receiving yards with four catches for 46 yards.

The rushing game did not do much better with Ahmad Bradshaw having 22 carries for 78 yards and Andre Brown with three carries for 21 yards and a touchdown.

Steve Weatherford had to punt the ball six times and Lawrence Tynes kicked and made five field goals sealing the victory for the Giants.

The Giants only converted three of 15 third downs and in the fourth quarter the Giants couldn’t convert on third down setting up an exciting finish to this game.

The Cowboys got the ball back with less than a minute remaining in the game. The defense allowed the Cowboys to get close enough to convert a touchdown pass and if it was not for Dez Bryant’s fingers landing out of bounds in the end zone the Giants would not have won this game.

On the last play of the game Osi Umenyoria was able to flush Romo out of the pocket and this caused Romo to throw the ball too high and out of reach of any of the wide receivers ending the game.  

The Giants sit comfortably on top of the NFC East at 6-2 and next up they have the Pittsburg Steelers. The Giants offense had an off game and will play better against the Steelers. If the defense continues to play the way they have the last two games the Steelers won’t be able to get their offense going and if the Giants offense is able to move down they field they will walk away with a victory.